


A Heart As Black As His Fur

by Joanne_c



Category: Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:02:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joanne_c/pseuds/Joanne_c
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even Salem has times of unburdening his thoughts. Sabrina gets to hear them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Heart As Black As His Fur

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mk_tortie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mk_tortie/gifts).



“My aunts are arguing over the best way to prepare bats’ blood, Harvey cancelled on me for a football game – or was it something else? Jenny is on a date and Libby is trying to destroy my life,” Sabrina sat down at the kitchen table. “I hate my life.”

“Try having four feet, fur, and a tail. Then tell me how bad your life is right now,” Salem answered. “Just because I brought being a cat on myself,” and Sabrina stared, because she couldn’t think of a time that he’d ever admitted that out loud, “doesn’t mean I’ve got to like it.”

Okay, that last part sounded like Salem. It was all the rest that didn’t, exactly. “Who are you and what have you done with Salem?” Sabrina asked, and she wasn’t being sarcastic. In this house? That was a definite possibility for why Salem wasn’t acting like his usual self. It was probably one of the more likely reasons, if anything.

“No spells on this kitty,” Salem answered. “I might not have much self-awareness, but I do know that taking over the world might not have been the best idea, at least not when I didn’t have a decent back up plan.”

This was practically psychobabble from Salem, and Sabrina was still kind of surprised, though she noted it didn’t actively shock her, so apparently she thought there was some kind of heart deep inside Salem. She wasn’t entirely sure how deep, of course. While pondering that, she pointed up a glass of milk, some cookies, a saucer of milk for Salem, and after a positively pitiful look, some tuna. “I don’t know how you can stand to eat that stuff, it reeks,” Sabrina shuddered.

“Don’t knock it til you’ve tried it,” and Salem buried his face in it. Sabrina drank her milk and ate her cookies and tried not to hear the noises Salem made.

Snacks eaten, Sabrina could hear her aunts arguing still, though they’d moved on to newt parts, which also made her shudder. “So what makes you think of taking over the world, or it not being a good idea?” Sabrina asked him.

“It’s the anniversary,” Salem said. “I guess I get a little nostalgic for having limbs and less fur when it comes round again. Though between you and me, sometimes being a cat isn’t so bad.”

That was another shocker. Salem hated being a cat.

“Oh, give me the chance to be human again, you won’t see the fur for dust,” Salem said. “But you know, having two people – and a half,” he shouldn’t have been able to look like he was raising an eyebrow at Sabrina, but he did, “do my every whim isn’t bad.”

“Aunt Zelda’s never done your every whim,” Sabrina pointed out.

“Who do you think’s the half?” Salem shot back. “You know you’ll do anything I ask. I may have to use various methods of persuasion, including but not limited to blackmail, helping you find spells in the magic book, getting you out of trouble from the spells you cast from the magic book, threatening to talk at the wrong time – will I go on?”

“Let’s take it as said,” Sabrina replied. She pointed up another glass of milk, as well as more for Salem. They weren’t old enough to drink so this would have to do. Well, Salem was, but he probably wasn’t in cat years, and Sabrina would probably bring the wrath of the Witches’ Council down on herself if she pointed up booze for him. Or at least the wrath of her aunts, so it was definitely not a good idea to even consider it. “Why did you want to take over the world, anyway?” she asked. She never had before, which surprised her to realise now. “Well, besides the usual reason, money, power, women, of course.”

“Does a guy need more than those?” Salem asked, mid-lap of milk. Sabrina pointed and the mess was cleaned up. She waited for him to finish.

“Probably not, but spill. No pun intended.”

“I guess it was the same old story. You get some power? You want more. You get some women? You want more. You get some money... you get the picture,” Salem said. “But it wasn’t only that. People listened to me. They bent over backwards – some literally – to do anything I wanted. That can be a really good feeling. I didn’t even have to cast spells to make it happen all the time.”

Sabrina got that. It wasn’t always the nicest, most altruistic personality trait, but sometimes, knowing she could make someone do what she wanted? It felt good. Sometimes she even used it, and while getting someone to move out of line was hardly taking over the world, she could extrapolate, kind of. She’d never say she got it, but she kind of did.

“You get it,” Salem said. She looked at him.

“How’d you know?”

“You got power,” he said. “It might not be taking over the world, but you’ve got the means to make people do what you want. Persuasion is a corrupting influence, you know.”

Sabrina knew. Painfully well. She couldn’t list off the amount of spells that had gone wrong that had started out with that basic idea. While she’d figured out that she could do minor things, the big ones were best left alone, she’d discovered the hard way.  
“But yeah,” Salem continued. “Given the chance, we all do it. I just made a bit more of a mess than most people end up making, to put it mildly.”

“Yeah, mildly,” Sabrina almost rolled her eyes, but not quite. There were plenty of reasons to be sarcastic, but she suspected she and Salem were actually having a bit of a bonding moment. She liked it. “I get it, but I don’t want to take over the world, not really. It’d be too hard work, and given your fondness for sleeping, I’m surprised you wanted to. Sure I know you could appoint ministers, but running the world would still be a pretty hard job.”

“Yeah, well,” Salem said. “That’s probably the advantages of the fur and tail. Not that I’ll ever admit that to anyone else. But you’re not wrong on it being a hard job. Not that I took over, but you know.”

“Enough to know it was going to be hard?” Sabrina asked.

“Something like that,” Salem answered.

“So deep down, a part of you doesn’t hate being our cat?”

“Deep down, and I know I only like being your cat,” Salem answered. He then leapt into Sabrina’s arms and cuddled.

Sabrina cuddled him and thought. So even Salem had a heart, as black as his fur as it may be. She liked knowing that.


End file.
